Vanquished
by AkemiRie
Summary: Lee knows she is not drawn to him because of his charm but because of his shame.


**Disclaimer**: Do not own Tekken.

**Authors Note**: This is set prior to Tekken 5; I'm just testing out _Leefina_. Hope you readers enjoy this.

* * *

**.**

**VANQUISHED**

**.**

* * *

**#**

**#**

**#**

**#**

**U**nlike his entourage, Lee finds the dusty winds of Egypt fascinating. It is like he is coming back to a land where nostalgia glows from the hues of the burning sun. He has been here a few times before but only for business, as a strapping young graduate while he was still under Heihachi's reign. He was untamed back then, his younger self had been a handful of street tricks and boyish smiles, accompanied with an erroneous belief that the world was given to him on a silver platter. After the first Tekken tournament, he had learnt otherwise. Now, Lee had taken that silver platter for himself, filling it with worldly delights wherever he went.

Using his most charming smile and in a suave tone, He asks the locals for a woman named Zafina. He lets them know someone has recommended him to her, an enigmatic astrologist; a perfect candidate for his magic show.

Most of the locals cover themselves in shrouds. They keep their women away from him and give him fixed glares which remind him he is an intruder to their land. His silver hair gleams in the intense sunlight and a pretty woman selling carpets notices him. She answers his question.

"She is not like the other women," The carpet woman tells him with her eyes transfixed on his silver hair.

"I've heard a lot about her," Lee smirks and imagines her voluptuous tanned legs tangled with his own, the Middle Eastern delight; another notch on his belt.

"She will kill if you give her a good reason to," The woman warns.

"If a Mishima couldn't kill me, I doubt a beautiful woman can, even if she has a track record of assassinating perpetrators on her land," Lee slips off his aviator shades and lets them dangle lazily on his fingers.

"Let me touch your hair. Then I will show you where she lives."

**V**

** V**

Lee wipes off the sweat from his nape. The cotton shirt clings to him and instead of waiting out in the sun for his mysterious lady to show up from her home; a nearby oasis beckons him to have a dip.

When he joins the water, it is a little warm but soon the coolness refreshes him. He is lost into the water until he sees a woman with smoky eyes watching him like a hawk.

"What are you doing in my fortune pool?" She asks, in a voice so quiet that Lee has to read her lips.

"Fortune pool?"

He surges from the water, his clothes dripping wet, clingy and transparent. The lady with the smoky eyes is not amused. Her precious fortune pool is contaminated by him.

"I hope you know there is a punishment for intruding on my land," She warns.

"A severe punishment?" He grins, "I hope so."

"You're the man who is after me," She concludes and throws him a towel, "Dry yourself off and then meet me inside my marquee."

** V**

** V**

Lee cannot take his eyes off the interior of her tent. Beads, gems and chains of gold dangle from the ceiling, the scent of sandalwood lingers in the air and the lanterns reflect the burgundy from the velvet walls of her marquee. Zafina leads him to a table and tells him to sit.

"Won't you sit down first, m'lady?" He pulls a chair out for her.

Zafina narrows her eyes at him suspiciously and he nods, he would always offer a woman a seat before he ever sat down. Then they would offer themselves to him as gratitude. It was a fair deal. Judging from her scowl and reluctance to sit down, Lee knew this one was going to require extra time, a challenge which he was up for. _Good things comes to those who_ _wait_, he reminded himself and smiled again when she finally sat down.

Lee pulls a chair and sits down, his attention quickly diverts from the heaving jugs of Zafina to the crystal ball on the table.

"Impressive, one would guess that you don't have a crystal ball."

"I don't care what one would say," Her tone is a creeping rasp, slithering just like a hungry snake on a hot desert, "I want to know what you want. Why have you come for me?"

"To offer you pleasure," Lee replies and sits back, making himself comfortable.

"I'm not interested in allowing you to exploit me."

"I do not wish to exploit you, I want to pleasure you with my deal," Lee pauses, "Didn't your crystal ball reveal your fortune?"

Zafina says nothing and waits for him to continue, Lee gladly takes his cue, "Well I have heard that you are unlike any other gypsy who allow men to parade on their treasure. You must be living the raw life. A decent woman like you deserves such appraisals, don't you know?"

"Just come to the point," Zafina bares her onyx painted nails, digging them into the tablecloth. Lee sits upright and forces himself to look away from her hands. To stop himself imagining that it is his skin instead of the tablecloth that her nails are marking. He looks at her face. Those eyes make him forget his rehearsed lines. As if she was hypnotising him, he forces out the words.

"I wish for you to become my partner, for my magic show."

**V**

** V**

** V**

Becoming Violet was his most wisest choice. Lee had felt that Heihachi was miles away from him. The fear of Heihachi slipping into his bed while he was growing up. His nightmares had faded but he still remembers. Those big rough hands groping him, defiling him. Lee was forced to bear the brunt of being Heihachi's scapegoat and his bitch at the same time. Heihachi had told him, a son obeys his father. Lee had no father and yet had been desperate to be a son.

Heihachi had treated him affectionately in front of others, especially Kazuya but it was Lee who wished he had never had the 'special treatment'. The irony was that he had been abused in another way in opposition to Kazuya. Kazuya had the violent one. He had the demeaning one.

Lee grew addicted on Heihachi's compliments. After becoming Violet, he realised how he had been tricked by a man who knew no charm, whose aggressive brutality could deceive any innocent soul. Violet is not the boy who scrounged through the garbage for food nor fought with other street boys. He is not the one who learnt Jeet Kune Doo by watching TV through the window shops or looking at street fighters perform. Violet is the man who freed him, taught him magic and a way to use it to restore his world.

Lee buries his fingers in his newly varnished purple hair, his assistant shyly reminds him that the show is about to start in four minutes. He tries to be kind to the young woman but he begs her to leave.

"You don't feel like Violet because you're Lee," The same tepid voice crawls into his ears.

Lee turns around and finds the smoky eyed woman standing in an almost transparent outfit. Her breasts were covered with a butterfly top and her legs were wrapped in long white boots, decorated with black vines and roses. He thought it was the loveliest costume he'd seen in long time.

Lee breathes a sigh of relief. He hadn't seen her for a month.

"Zafina."

"I did some research about you. You're not a bad man. Just a soul with a painful past," Her eyes are brittle and her lips give him a small smirk, "Although you need to clean up your act."

"You came for the magic show," He realises, surprised, "What made you change your mind?"

"I read the script. Don't worry I know everything. We have just a few seconds before the curtain goes up. Compose yourself."

**V**

** V**

** V**

After the magic show, he meets her backstage. She tells him that his purple glittery shirt is attractive and he wiggles his eyebrows.

"Want one?" He suggests, "I can arrange one for you."

Lee feels himself shiver when she accepts.

**V**

** V**

** V**

He notices that their outfits complement each other during dinner. He is in a black tuxedo with a red bow. Her dress is red satin and bears a cobra snake on the back.

"Can you read my palm," He asks her, at the end of their meal, when she is just about to put her gloves back on.

She asks for his hand only after their plates are cleared away, "You're a Libra."

Lee nods, "On one side, I'm Lee and on the other I'm Violet."

"Heihachi Mishima is a Gemini," Zafina speaks, ghosting her finger over the lines on his hand, "He's the force that keeps you unbalanced. He also has two sides. Both are attacking you."

Lee swallows, "Not anymore he's not."

She sighs and releases his hand, "I don't read palms."

**V**

** V**

** V**

He believes she is drawn to him not because of his charm but because she knows his shame. She wants to heal him and he is happy enough to let her wrap herself around him. When she is naked before him, he feels a desire that shatters him completely. He groans as she works herself over his body, flushing her skin against his, again and again. He smells the distinct smell of sandalwood on her, back from her home and buries his face on her neck. Her bosom, so soft and big caress his chest, they cushion him when he lies atop of her. Her legs wind around his waist, drawing him in, closer and he cannot resist the heat soaring though him, hot like the Egyptian summer.

**V**

** V**

** V**

The fifth tournament begins and ends like their relationship. As soon as Jin Kazama had become the CEO of the Mishima Zaibatsu and Kazuya had taken over G corp, Lee had grew possessive with keeping his Violet Systems in the spotlight. He had always expected Heihachi to keep the Mishima Zaibatsu and that one day he'd take over it, while the idiot Mishimas were busy fighting each other.

Zafina is also busy reading the stars, worried that she has not been doing her duty right. When they finally meet again to join at night, she asks him if he feels like a new man.

He lies to keep her satisfied but she knows better and tells him to use his company to fight against the two evil stars and not for himself.

"You're nothing but a man of lies!" She pulls away from him, disgusted as if he had tainted her body.

Lee burns with raw anger, a rejection from someone he let into his life tore through him, as if he was made to bleed, "You're nothing but a whore."

He never said those words to a woman, even if he sometimes felt that way.

**V**

** V**

** V**

The war is a long one, the days reluctantly roll into the night and Lee wonders if Zafina will forgive him. Lee keeps his friendship with Julia, seeing a similar spirit of Zafina's in her words, her actions. Lee holds the purple glittery shirt in his hand and places it back into the box. He'll return it to her. She can't forget him. He _won't_ let her.

When Lars and Alisa come to him, he offers them his aid and remembers Zafina's voice in the back of his mind. Lee remembers it when he tells them about Julia and hopes they will save her instead of him. As soon as he is alone again, Lee looks towards the dusky lilac sky that he believes leads to her home, he imagines her watching him. Combot does not offer him company but he pretends that it's human, it's better that way. A shiver runs through his body, solitude reminds him that he is defeated. It's not in his place to be the hero, he tries to justify but Zafina had said otherwise.

_It's in everyone's place to be a hero. _


End file.
